Darryl DuFay’s Home Invaded by Homeless Man

It is one thing to talk in theory about the homeless. It is one thing to caution those putting homeless housing near your home. It is another thing to go to sleep at night knowing the police cannot and do not enforce the laws to protect those who are not homeless. It is one thing to caution the City about this inequity that just increases in potential as the homeless flaunt their homelessness.

It is another thing when it happens to you!

This is Darryl DuFay’s story of his night before and morning of the Fourth of July with his encounter of a homeless person in his home. Darryl is a long-time resident of Venice. He has been active in Venice Median project which is meant for homeless housing near the canals.

By Darryl DuFay

Good morning. I’m glad I can say that.
It is five o’clock in the morning now and It is just beginning to sink in six hours later. I am increasingly not feeling well. I am having my own traumatic stress experience. I am overwhelmed with “what ifs.” What if my face-to-face personal encounter with a mentally disturbed homeless person had ended tragically.

I was going to bed about 11 last night. My bedroom is on the second floor. There is no outside access to my second floor. It was hot and I open the first of two doors to get a cross draft to cool down the room. It was the second door that enters onto my outside deck that I now replay and replay over in my head.

There rose up a figure on the other side of the door, which has glass panes, not solid. Then, a scream matched only by my own. Standing there, slightly bent over. was a disheveled white male, maybe be in his twenties or thirties, with something wrapped around him. No shirt. He continued screaming. Something about being beaten up, that he didn’t know where he was, and to call the police. He had to have climbed up from the outside.

My first impulse was to try to get him out of my home peacefully. In hindsight because he did not want to leave — not a good idea. I closed and locked the door.. He kept screaming and screaming. I was in a personal panic when I called 911. He kept screaming and screaming.

I walked out and sat down outside by my front door to wait for the police and continued to look back upstairs, afraid he might become violent and break through the door. He kept screaming and screaming.

A neighbor was on the footbridge right by my home. I asked him to call 911 again, which he did. Five to seven minutes had passed. His friend Tiffany came on the bridge and over to where I was sitting. She asked how I was feeling and offered any help I might need. He continue to scream and scream.

The police arrived about ten to fifteen minutes or more later. I don’t remember how much time, but it was not right away. They came. I directed them where to go. They talked to the individual. He didn’t resist. He kept saying he was sorry. The police took him outside and had him sit down to talk to him. He repeated he didn’t know where he was at. The police said they were going to take him to the hospital.

The police apologized for not arriving sooner but said they were encountering other situations.

I end by repeating my “what if.” For me this did not end tragically but in the growing, uncontrolled homeless state that grips Venice. Who knows what will be next. For 39 years I have lived in the Venice Canals.

Comments (4)

I remember at the time, Linda Lucks and her apologist army went into high gear trying to couch this as a “violence against women” issue, rather than a “crazy person allowed to live on the street in Venice killed a lady issue.” Today, this is not a “police response” situation. The LAPD has so much to deal with and the local division is not really staffed enough to deal with this expanding transient population that has been willfully encouraged by both the Council Office and a gaggle of lawyers that seem to think that somehow this is the fair and just. Ask the cops, they will tell you how much of their time is sopped up by “homeless issues.” SAD

I’m sorry hear this, we have a growing encampment along the parking lot at Venice Blvd. This is a new situation and one I fully blame on Bonin and his announcement of homeless housing to be built on the parking lot. It has been a lot worse in the neighborhood this summer with ‘campers’. I had an attempted break-in a few months ago by a homeless guy armed with a knife, LAPD was initially responsive, following up with a fingerprint tech, but when the guy came back and started camping across the street from my house I couldn’t get a return call from LAPD. It was left to me, with pepper spray in hand, to go yell at the guy to get him to leave. Luckily it worked, thanks LAPD.

That is an UNACCEPTABLE response time. This is the dangerous situation that Bonin has created for us residents. Not to scare you, but the statistics show that a home invasion results in death or serious injury (to either you or the invader) about 50% of the time. It’s the MOST DANGEROUS situation you can be in as a home owner or apartment renter – PERIOD! And that fact that they didn’t arrest him is an outrage. If he had stabbed in the gut and you bled to death, Bonin and the apologists of the social services mafia would have just BLAMED YOU for being housed. So unfair to work hard and expect to be safe in your own god damed home. BONIN is essentially a criminal and must go. The “what if” is VERY simple, a mentally ill transient RAPED AND KILLED Eun Kang on Electric Ave about a decade ago.
She was pregnant with twins (a triple homicide). Took too long for the LAPD to respond as usual. You can see the LA TIMES article here. And of course, the homeless apologists were doing backflips to try and justify it. Tell that to Eun Kang’s family.

The “what if” is VERY simple, a mentally ill transient RAPED AND KILLED Eun Kang on Electric Ave about a decade ago.
Does anyone know where in the system the transient who killed Eun Kang is now? Is he in prison, in a mental institution, or has he been released due to the recent laxing of penalties in the justice system?

Recent Comments

Rick Swinger { When we have a councilman who allows a cesspool with homeless feces to exist without a warning sign on a public beach next to a playground during a Hepatitis A outbreak its no wonder that he has turned his back on Venice with all these other issues.Ahhhhh Bonin. Clueless again! } – 1803 7:54 AM

Lee { I thought the rule was belongings needed to fit in a garbage can size container? We are being inundated with trash that is being left behind and blows into the storm drains and waterways. Maybe we should all refuse to pay our property taxes as I don't think any of... } – 1603 8:02 PM

Billy Bathgate { Did Kip Pardue move ? Reason I ask is because back when they were talking about building housing for the homeless at the old Metro Station Mr. Pardue lived right across the street. Now he's claiming to live right next to the Venice Median lot. Something smells fishy here. Everywhere... } – 1603 5:01 PM

Shaka { So well said! I feel that the biggest NIMBY is Mike Bonin as he opposes homelessness initiatives in his backyard of Mar Vista or in his donors backyards of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood! } – 1603 11:52 AM

kaylamarieblogs { In San Jose, where I lived a long time, they keep closing bookstores and opening massage parlors and pot clubs. Homeless everywhere, very depressing. This is because the population resembles something from the film Idiocracy. California continues to grow more and more urban (rot), as compared to how I remember... } – 1503 7:16 AM

Patrick { This is a major improvement on the %^%^#@## advertisements that have been there for years. } – 1403 10:49 AM